How Can You Ensure Your Spa is Successful?
Nestled within the heart of England, Warwickshire’s The Spa at Ardencote’s Spa Manager Holly Glynn has put together her top tips for a successful Spa, following the completion of its £1.5 million Spa development programme.
Bringing a wealth of experience that spans over ten years, Holly has always enjoyed being hands on while delivering the ultimate client experience. Now, after seven years with The Spa at Ardencote, she prides herself, and in turn, her team, at ensuring Spa customers leave feeling better about themselves, happier, lighter, and of course much more relaxed. While working in Spa may bring its challenges as every job does, this will always be the biggest reward for any Spa team.
With extensive training in beauty therapy and education, as well having worked with over eight of the industry’s leading product houses, Holly has worked her way from Beautician to right the way through to Spa Manager. Now responsible for a team of 15, she extends her knowledge of delivering a first-class experience to continue to transform The Spa at Ardencote’s offerings.
Having a clear vision: as a Spa Manager, you want to constantly be looking towards the future and planning how you can improve and develop the Spa experience. During brainstorms, I usually ask myself and my team, where do we want to see our Spa in two years and what kind of experience do we want to offer?
Quality treatments: you may think this is an obvious one, but the treatments really are one of the most important aspects of the Spa experience. A good Spa menu will have something for everyone, from express treatments to full body rituals (like our Absolute Spa Ritual which combines a holistic facial and full body massage to create – my personal favourite!)
Communication is key: not only within your own team but towards the guests too, good communication is very important. Making everyone feel more comfortable, the therapist should be able to explain every stage of the treatment and its health benefits. Not only will this put the therapist at ease, but it will allow the client to full relax knowing they are in good hands
Staff will make the spa experience: ensuring your staff are polite, knowledgeable about the offerings, friendly, and attentive will play a big part in the success of your Spa. Hosting regular training and staff days can be a great way to ensure that your staff are kept up to date on protocol, but also can also be a great way to weave in team building exercises for staff to get to know each other and their ways of working. This is the recipe for a strong team!
Having a strong referral programme: word of mouth has always been and continues to be the strongest marketing tool. Encouraging your existing clients to bring along someone new and introduce their friends to the spa will do wonders for your bookings. That’s why providing the best experience is crucial as you want people to feel confident in recommending it!
Being on top of the beauty trends: staying relevant, bringing in new clients and continuing to retain existing ones means always being on top of the beauty trends and moving with the times. We love to experiment with new offerings and sometimes these have been our most successful!